This Is the Team That Embry Built

By SAM GOLDAPER

Published: January 6, 1989

No joke. The Cleveland Cavaliers, once the comic relief of the National Basketball Association, now have the best record in the league.

With one-third of the season gone the Cavaliers, as Coach Doug Collins of the Chicago Bulls said last week, are ''good enough to win a championship.''

Lest anyone forget, this is the same Cleveland franchise that, under Ted Stepien's ownership, traded away nine straight first-round draft choices. During the 1980-81 season, Larry O'Brien, then the N.B.A. commissioner, finally barred the club from making trades without league permission.

How did a team that had eight coaches in seven seasons and finished the 1985-86 season with a 29-53 record and without either a coach or a general manager turn itself completely around? After last night's victory over Chicago, Cleveland had a 23-5 record, a franchise-record 10-game winning streak, the league's stingiest defense and a three-game lead over the Detroit Pistons, everyone's pick as the next superstar team.

The reshaping of the Cavaliers began in June 1986 with the hiring of Wayne Embry as general manager. He talked Lenny Wilkens, then the Seattle SuperSonics' general manager, into going back to coaching and hired Gary Fitzsimmons as director of player personnel.

''Lenny has been the perfect coach for this team,'' said Embry. ''He is patient, a good teacher who knows how to motivate young players and deal with veterans. He's a players' coach.''

The three have put together what Embry calls a ''nice mix of experience and youth.''

They originally estimated it would take five years to undo the wrongs and get the Cavaliers onto the right track. But Embry said in a telephone interview earlier in the week that ''we've come along more rapidly.''

''We're a pretty good team,'' he said, ''but people may be too hasty in trying to hand us the championship. We're still learning and it's a long season with a lot of games still to go.

''When I interviewed for the job I told Gordon and George Gund there was a perception around the N.B.A. that the Cavaliers had attitude problems. The chemistry just wasn't right for winning. I told them that a lot of changes had to be made and that it wouldn't be easy. I felt Roy Hinson, Phil Hubbard and Mark West were the only players worth keeping.'' Only Hubbard Remains

Hubbard, a 6-foot-8-inch forward who came to Cleveland in a 1982 trade with the Detroit Pistons, is the lone holdover from the pre-Embry days.

Embry was a bulky 6-8, 260-pound center who challenged, shoved and traded elbows with Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russell, Wes Unseld and others. In 1966, Red Auerbach, in need of a center to back up Russell, talked Embry out of a contemplated retirement. Embry had spent eight seasons with the Cincinnati Royals.

''I've always looked back at Red as an inspiration,'' said Embry. ''He gave me my confidence back. I might get only a couple of rebounds, but after a game he'd mention it and slap me on the back. That was important. I was a man again.''

After two seasons in Boston, which included the 1967-68 championship season, Embry retired in 1969 after one season with the Milwaukee Bucks. Three years later, at the age of 35, he was back in Milwaukee as the first black general manager in major league sports.

During his six-year tenure as the Bucks' general manager, he delicately handled the trade of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to the Los Angeles Lakers and coaxed Don Nelson into coaching. Free Advice

While Embry was interviewing for the Cavalier job before the 1986 draft, the team's owners, the Gund brothers, asked his advice about a possible trade with the Philadelphia 76ers that would give Cleveland the first pick in the draft and a shot at Brad Daugherty, the 7-foot North Carolina center.

''I told them to make the deal,'' said Embry. ''I told them Roy Hinson, who was to be included in the deal, was a fine player, but any rebuilding has to start with a center.''

Daugherty went to bed the night before the June 17, 1986, draft expecting to be picked by the 76ers. When he awoke, the pick belonged to the Cavaliers. Cleveland had sent Hinson, since traded to the Nets, and $800,000 to Philadelphia for the pick.

The 23-year-old Daugherty, who was named by the coaches to the Eastern Conference All-Star team last year, now ranks with Akeem Olajuwon of the Houston Rockets and Patrick Ewing of the Knicks as one of the league's best young centers, to the chagrin of the 76ers.

The Cavaliers used the eighth pick in that same draft to select Ron Harper from Miami of Ohio, which is Embry's alma mater. Harper averaged 22.9 points per game as a rookie and 15.4 points last season, although he missed 25 games with a badly sprained left ankle.

In addition, the Cavaliers - still acting with Embry's advice - obtained the rights to Mark Price, the feisty point guard from Georgia Tech, who was drafted by Dallas on the second round in 1986. Price has become such an outstanding talent that the Washington Bullets tried to pry him away during the off season when he was a free agent by offering $1 million a year. The Cavaliers matched the offer.

Also in 1986, John Williams, whom Cleveland drafted the year before, became eligible after being cleared of involvement in the Tulane gambling scandal. Daugherty, Harper and Price make up three-fifths of Cleveland's starting lineup. Williams, a power forward, is their sixth man.

Although Daugherty and Harper were named to the N.B.A. all-rookie team two seasons ago, the still young and immature Cavaliers missed the playoffs. That didn't bother Embry or Wilkens, who were looking ahead.

Last Feb. 25, the Cavaliers made what Embry has called ''our biggest move.'' They acquired Larry Nance and Mike Sanders from the Phoenix Suns for three players and some draft choices.

Sanders and the 6-10 Nance, always a high scorer, are now Cleveland's starting forwards.

The Cavaliers not only made the playoffs last season but also finished over .500 (42-40) for the first time since 1977-78.

Cleveland was eliminated in the opening round of the playoffs by the Chicago Bulls, three games to two. Again, that didn't bother either Embry or Wilkens, who saw it as yet another step in the rebuilding process.

The process continued with the addition of some veterans. Embry signed Wayne (Tree) Rollins, the shot-blocking center, as a free agent and obtained Darnell Valentine as Price's backup.

Every one of Embry's moves was carefully calculated and geared toward winning the N.B.A. title.

''Lenny and I don't believe in stopgap measures,'' said Embry. ''Our goal isn't to make the playoffs. That would have been deceiving, as it was in here a couple of years back. If you do it that way, the whole thing can collapse. What we are hopefully doing is to put in the foundation for a team that will consistently compete for a championship.''